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Intergovernmental discussion between the City of Cape Town’s Subcouncil 2 and the provincial education department is on the board to find solutions to the traffic chaos outside schools during drop-off and pick-up times.
This comes after traffic services for area north last week warned of a lack of resources to service schools in the area.
Area north includes Brackenfell, Durbanville, Kraaifontein, Bellville, Kuils River and Bellhar and according to principal traffic inspector, Gerald Khudunyane only consists of eight officers on the morning shift, and eight officers on the afternoon shift.
Reporting back at a Subcouncil 2 meeting Khudunyane said the traffic department receives endless complaints about bottlenecks at schools during peak hour school traffic.
“It is chaotic outside schools. Parents block and obstruct each other, resulting in rage. They swear at each other and at officers,” he said.
Lack of road infrastructure
This, according to him, is due to road infrastructure not keeping up with the population growth in the above said areas.
“Also, with an influx of learners from other areas there are more children, more vehicles and not enough road,” he said.
This problem is also compounded by loadshedding. “With limited resources it is impossible to deploy pointsmen to major intersections near schools which becomes a mess during blackouts.”
Member of the City’s safety and security portfolio Rhynhard Bressler said instruction came from the education department that school premises are not to be used for parents to park on.
This according to Bressler is in line with provincial school safety precautions.
“Most of the schools in the area were built to carry an average of about 1 000 learners, whereas now most schools are overfull with as much as in some cases more than 2 000 learners,” he said.
Ward councillor for Kraaifontein and parts of Brackenfell, Grant Twigg suggested the Subcouncil send a letter to the education department to initiate a discussion over the dilemma.
Subcouncil chair Marian Nieuwoudt added that schools in the area suffering the most under traffic pressure be identified, and it be looked into how they can be assisted.
